Admissions Blog

Transcript Statuses

By Admissions on Aug 29, 2012 This is a long post (taken from an even longer reminder email!), but it addresses many common situations. Please read the whole thing before contacting our office about your transcripts and other documents. 1.    If you requested that your documents from last year be carried forward but the status still says “Not Received”: As we have said before, since we already have all of last year’s transcripts in our office, we are not prioritizing these transcripts, so it might take a while for them to be marked as received. We will work on them throughout the summer but we might not have them all updated until after the application deadline. As long as you have checked the appropriate box on the application and do not need to submit a new transcript, don’t worry that the transcript status still says “Not Received.” Your transcript will be considered received on time as long as the box is checked, you do not need to submit a new transcript, and your application was submitted by the deadline. Please do not call or email us about this – contacting us just delays the process. We’re not going to make you ineligible because we in the office did not have a chance to update your transcript status before the deadline. 2.    If you requested your UBC transcript be accessed electronically but the status still says “Not Received”: Same thing – these transcripts are not our highest priority so it will take longer than normal for us to update them. As long as you have checked the appropriate box on the application, don’t worry that the transcript status still says “Not Received.” Your transcript will be considered received on time as long as the box is checked, your UBC information was filled out correctly, and your application was submitted by the deadline. Again, please do not call or email us about this. 3.    If you sent your transcripts to us by courier and the courier status is showing as received (or if you dropped off your transcripts in person), but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”: It takes 1-2 business days for your documents to be sent from our mailing address to our physical location, so until they arrive in our physical location, we will not be able to mark them as “Received” online. Don’t worry – as long as it arrived at our mailing address by the deadline, it will be considered “Received”, even if we are not able to update your status to reflect this right away.  If you have courier or signature proof that your transcript was delivered more than two days ago to our mailing address, please email us through the online application system with the tracking information and we will look into it as soon as possible. 4.    If your institution says they sent your transcripts a week ago, but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”: Regular mail can take a while to get to us, and schools are very busy this time of year with transcript orders, so make sure to give yourself lots of extra time. We are working hard to keep on top of the high volume of transcripts that we receive so that you will know when we have them in hand, but remember, once you put a document in the mail, our office has no way of determining when it will arrive, or why it has not yet arrived. If you are really concerned about your transcripts arriving by a certain time, you may want to consider having them couriered. 5.    If you have proof that you ordered a transcript at your Registrar’s Office, or proof of your school sending your transcript to us by regular mail, but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”:  It is not considered an exceptional circumstance if your transcript takes longer than expected to be processed by your school and/or to arrive to us by regular mail – we will not accept emailed proof that you ordered your transcript early, or electronic versions of your documents until your official documents get here. It is your responsibility to ensure your official transcript arrives at our mailing address by the deadline, so send them in plenty of time, keep an eye on your transcript status, and if you think it seems like an unreasonable amount of time has passed since you sent it, request another be sent. Please don’t call and ask us what is a reasonable amount of time is, or if we think you should send another or not – our guess is as good as yours. 6.    If you want to bring forward transcripts that were received by our office during last year’s application, but you also need to send us one updated transcript: a.    If you check off the box asking us to bring forward your documents from last year, and you send us one updated transcript, we will use the newest version of the transcript received before the deadline, along with any other transcripts that you asked to be brought forward. b.    If you want to bring forward your documents from last year, but you need to update your UBC grades, check off the box asking us to bring forward your documents from last year, and check off the box asking us to access your new UBC transcript electronically. We’ll understand what you mean if you check off both boxes. 7.    If you submitted your transcripts a while ago, but had not yet added that institution to your online application: Our office cannot mark your document as “Received” until you add it to your online application. This goes for university transcripts, IB/AP transcripts, high school transcripts and WES/ICES evaluations. If you recently updated your application to show another institution, you do not need to contact us. We are constantly going through ‘unmatched’ transcripts to update them for you as quickly as we can. These items have been date-stamped so we know when they arrived. 8.   Seeing a red exclamation point after you pay the application fee: Right before the early deadline, a couple of applicants reported seeing a red exclamation point on the Application page even after their payment goes through successfully. If you can see your payment transaction details on the Application Fee page of the application, you can trust that your payment was successful and was received at the date and time indicated. The red exclamation point should update to a green checkmark overnight. Permalink | 29 Comments

MED 2016 Class is Full

By Admissions on Aug 28, 2012

Orientation for MED 2016 started today. Best wishes to the class of MED 2016 as you start on your path to medicine!

Since the class is now finalized, we notified the few remaining applicants on the waitlist. The news was probably not unexpected to most of you. Knowing for sure that no more spots will open up might still sting, but we hope the news can help redirect your energy toward your plans for the upcoming year. For anyone reapplying to the program, we wish you the best of luck with your 2012/2013 application.

Permalink | No Comments

A few more questions – August 8

By Admissions on Aug 08, 2012

Here are a few more questions we’ve been getting:

How do I indicate I want my transcripts carried forward?

On the application, if you indicate that you applied in 2011/2012, a checkbox will pop up where you can say you want your transcripts carried forward. As long as that box is marked when your application is submitted, your carried-forward transcripts will be considered received on time.  It might take a while for these transcripts to be updated (see this post for more info). Please do not email us to tell us you marked the box but your transcript is not updated yet.

How do I release my MCAT scores?

Please use the THx system and remember that UBC is not a part of the AMCAS system. You should get a confirmation email if your score release was successful. We are currently updating MCAT scores twice a week. When we have received and updated your scores, you will be able to see them on your Application Status page. If they have not been received yet the MCAT score part on the Application Status page will say “no scores found.”

What if I already took the MCAT but am taking it again soon?

You have two options:

1. Release your old scores now and re-release your scores when the new ones are available
2. Wait until your new scores are available and release them all at once

Either one is fine; just make sure you release all of your scores in time for the October 1 deadline.

Can I take the MCAT on September 1? It’s only one day late.

Sorry, September 1 is too late. The last accepted test date for 2012/2013 is August 31.

I don’t know where to put my poster/presentation/activity/work experience/award.

Please try to do your best, following the guidelines in the Help Guide. We look at all of the non-academic categories so don’t worry too much if you aren’t sure where to put something – we will see it, regardless of where it ends up being. It does help us if you can follow the guidelines as much as possible, though. As a rule we do not tell individual applicants how to fill out the non-academic sections with their specific activities, so please use your good judgment and try to put things in the section and/or category that seems most appropriate according to the Help Guide guidelines.

Permalink | 18 Comments

Questions about BC Residency, Academic Awards and WES/ICES Evaluations

By Admissions on Jul 19, 2012

We’ve been getting some questions about the following topics:

BC residency
We sometimes get the question “Does my university transcript prove BC residency?” This is really a question to ask yourself. First, decide which BC residency definition you fall under (if you meet more than one, just pick one). Then, look at your transcript. Does it show the required number of years and/or dates, based on the BC residency definition you picked? For example, does it show that you studied in BC for all three of the 2009/2010, 2010/2011, and 2011/2012 academic years? Or, does it show that you lived in BC for four (not necessarily consecutive) years?

If your transcript has the correct years on it, then yes, your university transcript proves BC residency. If it doesn’t, please submit a different proof of BC residency like a secondary school transcript, letter from an employer, rental contract or letter from landlord, etc. Driver’s licenses, BC CareCards, tax returns, and property tax statements are not accepted as proof of BC residency.

We also want to remind everyone that we will contact you if we have any questions about your BC residency. If it turns out that you don’t actually qualify as a BC resident, you won’t be disqualified. You’ll just be considered an out-of-province applicant for the rest of the cycle.

Academic Awards
The phrase “since senior-level secondary school” seems to be generating some confusion. We apologize for the ambiguity. We mean that you can include awards going back to grade 11 (we consider grades 11 & 12 to be “senior-level secondary school”).

We’ve also been getting a lot of questions like “Can I include award x?” This we can’t help you with. Our instructions are that the Academic Awards section is reserved for academic awards, and awards that have a non-academic component should go in the non-academic section instead. It’s your responsibility to make the decision whether or not to include an award or where to put it. Remember, if you put it in the ‘wrong’ section you won’t be penalized (but please do try to follow the instructions as best you can).

WES/ICES evaluations
We have gotten many variations on the question “Do I really have to get a WES/ICES evaluation?” I always imagine an implied 🙁 at the end, which is understandable. It’s expensive, and we know some of you were only away for one term. However, the answer is yes ( 🙁 ). You do need to have your foreign transcript evaluated by WES or ICES even if you were on exchange, even if you didn’t take many classes, even if the grades show up on your home transcript, even if you are a UBC student, even if your transcript is in English, and even if you were only abroad for one term.

The number of questions we’ve been getting reflects the increasing numbers of applicants who go abroad, which is why we instituted this policy. The experts as WES and ICES will give your courses a fair and accurate evaluation. As a side note, we find that they tend to be a bit more generous than we would be in some cases, based on our policies.  Maybe that will help to make the cost a little more palatable.

In addition to the evaluation, to comply with UBC requirements, we still need the original transcript from the foreign institution even if the evaluation service includes a verified copy with the evaluation report. This transcript should arrive by the September 17th deadline (or August 15th if you are trying to meet the early submission deadline). The WES/ICES report does not have to arrive until October 1.

As a reminder, U.S. transcripts do not require a WES or ICES evaluation.

We need to be able to acknowledge that your WES/ICES evaluation has been received via the online application system, so please enter WES/ICES on the Transcript page (instructions are in the Help Guide). Ideally, you will enter the courses as they appear on the evaluation. If you don’t know what to enter because you won’t have your WES/ICES done by the time you submit your application, just add a school year with WES/ICES as an institution but don’t add any classes. You should also enter your foreign transcript as usual.

Feel free to ask any questions here, but as always, if your question is specific and applies only to you it’s better to email us through the online application system.

Permalink | 22 Comments

Admissions Myths

By Admissions on Jul 06, 2012

As you can imagine, one of the most frequently asked questions we get in the Admissions Office is, “what does it take to get into medicine?” If you’ve ever attended an information session you may have seen one of us stammer an answer about getting good grades, completing pre-requisites, and getting involved in school and activities- blah blah blah. But having done a few information sessions myself, I can see by looking at all of the incredulous faces in the room that everyone already knows the answer I am giving. The person asking the question is clearly not asking, “What does it take to get into medicine,” they are asking, “What does it take, step by step, point by point, to ensure that I get that letter of acceptance in the mail at the end of all of my hard work?”  This is the hardest and most frustrating question for us to answer, because we can’t tell you. It’s not that we don’t want to tell you. It is literally that we can’t tell you, beyond what we’ve already said on our website. This is because the file review process at UBC is holistic, which by definition means that everything counts. There really is no magic formula or perfect combination of grades/mcat scores/extracurricular activities/references etc that will guarantee your acceptance.

Because we can’t say something specific and concrete like “just get a GPA of X and volunteer in Y capacity at Z and you’ll be in!” we recognize that the myths about what it takes to be accepted run rampant. This is where this project comes in. A group of UBC medical students approached us last year about a website they wanted to create in order to help debunk some myths about the UBC medical school admissions process. They created it to help you (and others who are possibly considering a career in medicine) better understand some facts and fiction about what it takes to be admitted. We strongly encourage you to check it out!

We want you to know that we worked with the students to ensure the facts and fiction were accurate, but you should also know that the content of the site is entirely their own. This is their experience in medical school and their perspective about the program. For any admissions criteria, always check our website as it is the definitive source of information and it will contain the most up-to-date things you need to complete to be considered eligible for the program.

We hope that their site will help you gain better insight into our admissions process and medical school. And we hope you spread the message to anyone in your family, peer group, classes, or social network that would make a good doctor or is considering applying to our medical school. Let’s begin debunking these myths together.

You don’t just have to take our word for it! Enjoy!

http://admissionmyths.med.ubc.ca/

 

Permalink | 12 Comments